Seth (II) Manes Pulaski County Part I

Signature from application for Presidential Pardon for James Davis after the Civil War.

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

Seth Manes (often noted as Seth II) was born in 1814 to Jacob Wilson Manes and Mary Lawson Manes six miles from Rogersville on the north side of Clinch Mountain in Hawkins County, Tennessee.  Jacob was an Indian trader and fur trapper and was frequently gone from home.  He had been kidnapped at age 11 and wasn't able to return for eight years.  Although Jacob didn't have the chance for an education, he was known for his fantastic memory, especially for Bible verses.  The Manes and Lawson families were Baptists.  Seth and his brother Callaway became Baptist ministers.

Some sources state that the family moved to Indiana circa 1821.  "Jacob Wilson Manes and Mary "Polly" Lawson Manes moved to a spot near Terre Haute, Indiana.  Jacob, his wife and their six sons, Callaway, Wade, Seth, William Bryson, James and Nicholas, headed north in a covered wagon, crossing the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. When they came to the Ohio River, camp was struck for several days while a raft was built. This raft carried the family across to the Indiana side. The march northward was continued until a place was found to suit Jacob's fancy. The site was near what is now Terre Haute, Indiana. Here a log cabin was erected."  Four more children were born to this couple after coming to Indiana:  Lottie, Jane, Jacob, and Mahala.

Their son Callaway returned to Tennessee, marrying Sarah "Sallie" Evans on July 7, 1828.  According to the 1830 Census he was married and living with his wife and infant son in Hawkins County.  The young family moved on to Indiana, as did his wife's family, Archibald and Mary Manes Evans, with their other six daughters.

The Jacob Wilson Manes family was on the move again in 1832. This journey, however, was of short duration, lasting only three days or so. They stopped at a space 35 miles east of Terre Haute, in Clay Township, Owen County, Indiana. Here, according to Jacob Wilson Manes, was an ideal spot. The land was high and dry. There were almost no settlers and plenty of game. An abundance of water was supplied by Raccoon Creek and White River, which ran close by and were filled with good edible fish; plenty of timber was available for building. The location offered everything that tended to make a pioneer's life easier one. A cabin was built a little more than a quarter of a mile west of the present site of the Braysville school house on the south side of the Braysville-Freedom pile road.

In Indiana Seth was hired to a man, Sammy Howe, and lived with him continuously for years, giving most of his wages to the support of his mother and younger siblings.

By February 1835, Jacob Wilson Manes had moved to an area that would become Richwoods Township, Miller County, Missouri.  Mary Polly Lawson Manes and several of the children stayed in Indiana.  One story relates that he had left Indiana with a drove of horses and no one knew what became of him; however, four of his sons came to Missouri over the next few years.

Missouri had been granted statehood in 1821.  The Osage Indians ceded their traditional lands across Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma in the treaties of 1818 and 1825.  Jacob acted as administrator for William Evan's estate in 1835 and married William's widow, Emaline Hice Evans.  Callaway's wife, Sallie, was a niece of William and Emaline Hice Evans.  This same year Seth married Rebecca "Becky" Evans, a sister of Sallie, in Indiana.

Seth and Becky's daughter Mary Anne "Polly" Manes was born on April 12, 1837, in Indiana.  A second daughter, Ellen Elizabeth, was born in 1838.

Callaway witnessed a land sale for Jacob and Emaline Manes in Miller County in 1839.  He chose to settle in neighboring Pulaski County, Missouri. "For some time Callaway lived in a cabin in what was known as Still House Hollow on the William Gillespie farm on the Gasconade River when that entire area was wilderness. Callaway Manes, William Gillespie, and Isaac Davis, made a crop there. The cabin was an old trapper's cabin without any door or window. At the same time, he laid the foundations of two cabins on Conn's Creek, but continued to cultivate land on the Gillespie place until he had cleared out a sufficient land of his own claim. In those early years, the foundation for a cabin was sufficient to hold a claim against subsequent comers."   The ties between the Manes and Gillespie families can be traced back to Moore County, North Carolina.   The Gillespie and Davis families had come to Missouri in 1829.      

By the 1840 Census, Callaway and Sallie Manes were living in Pulaski County next to Seth and his family, and near the wives' parents, Archibald and Mary Evans with four other daughters.  Six of the seven Evans' daughters remained in Pulaski County for the rest of their lives.  Seth and Becky's son, Thomas Callaway, was born in Pulaski County in March 1840, and Callaway and Sallie's son, William Gillespie Manes, was born in October. "Seth was offered his choice of the two claims on which Callaway had laid foundations. Seth chose the one near the head of the stream and, in due time, erected a house of heavy hewn log timbers in which he lived the remainder of his life and where he reared his children and some of his grandchildren.  The claims were on the Gasconade River, about five miles southeast of where Richland exists today.

According to Seth's half-brother, Samuel Jasper Manes, who lived with the family at times:  "Seth differed from most of the Manes family, all of whom were high strung, fractious people.  Seth was high strung, feared nothing on earth, but was not fractious.  I was about his house a great deal, lived there as my own home two years as one of the family, and I never seen him yet off his balance, never heard a cross word spoken to his wife nor one of his children, yet he chastised his children and occasionally punished them, but always seemed to be in a perfect good humor.  To illustrate his way, I will relate one circumstance.  His oldest boy Callaway (Thomas Callaway) and the rest of his boys got into some mischief, but Callaway seemed to be the leader and Seth got onto it and called Callaway up, asked him about it.  Callaway tried to justify himself, but Seth said, 'tut, tut, tut.  Callaway you are too big a boy to act that way.  I will have to give you a whipping in the morning.'  This was Sunday afternoon.  He was smiling all the time and talking in a kind way.  Callaway was about fourteen years old, so we all supposed that ended it and went on our way.  Next morning, after breakfast, Seth called Callaway out and give him a genteel dressing.  When he got through, he said, 'My son, I hate to have to punish you, but you must not do such things - and if I have to punish you again I will make it a little worse.'  And all that time was seemingly in a perfect good humor.  That was his style with his family, his neighbors, and his stock; never seemed to fret over anything.  He was honest to a cent and his work was considered good, was a good neighbor and the best man in case of sickness or distress I ever saw.  When a neighbor got sick or had bad luck he was the first man to be on the group or help and often sacrificed his own interests to help others."

In February 1844, Jacob Manes left Miller County to join his sons Callaway and Seth in Pulaski County.  Jacob Wilson Manes cleared four acres of land that spring for William Gillespie in the lower field of the Jesse Gillespie Place.  Jacob and his family moved on to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where his step-daughter, Minerva Jane Evans, married Reuben Lambert in 1850.  In January 1853 Reuben Lambert and Jacob Wilson Manes got into a fight near Mountain Grove, Missouri, and Seth's father was killed.  It's plausible that the two men were trapping and trading furs, as the fur-trading town of Astoria existed near Mountain Grove at that time.

Seth served as Justice of the Peace for 18 years.  Additional children were born as follows:  1841 Francis Marion Manes, 1843 Jacob Newton Manes, 1845 Sarah Malinda,  1846 Simeon Henderson, 1848 John Aaron, 1849 Mahala Catherine, 1851 Daniel Lorenzo, 1852 Matilda Emmaline, 

In 1848 their brother Wade joined them in Pulaski County.  He stayed until 1855, moving on to Flat River where he died in 1864.  His family moved on to Texas.

In August, 1851, Seth's mother, Mary Polly Lawson Manes, died in Owen County, Indiana.  Although she used the name Manes, her children who stayed in Indiana used the name Maners.

In 1858 Seth and Becky's first daughter Mary Anne Polly Manes married George W. Vaught on May 11.  George was born in Alabama in 1833.  (1880 Census of Pulaski County) He homesteaded 160 acres near Dublin.  He walked to North Missouri to record his deed.  George said the 160 acres cost ten cents an acre.  His home was a big log house with a lean-to and by that was another cabin which was used as a kitchen.  Later he built a two-story, all the logs the same size, hewed and notched at the corners.  The fireplace was on the east end.  Big porches were on the north and south sides.  This home was built near the spring.  A log smokehouse was built and the cooking was done here in the summer.

In 1860 their oldest son Thomas Callaway married Nancy York and their daughter Ellen Elizabeth married William Elbert York.

Seth McCully Manes (III) was born in 1861.

The Manes Family of Preachers and Teachers

Seth (II) Manes Pulaski County Part 2

The year 1861 changed Missouri and changed the Manes family.  Citizens of Missouri held a unique position during the Civil War.  "Three weeks after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, Missouri became the only state to hold a secession convention and then vote to remain in the Union. Still, the convention soundly rejected coercion along with secession. The delegates called for federal troops to be removed from southern forts, and they expressed support for slavery where it already existed.  The convention made it clear Missouri would not accept harsh federal measures against any state. Missouri assumed the position of an armed neutral, committed to the Union, but ready to defend itself against federal abuses."

On April 15, President Lincoln requested that Missouri supply just over 3,000 men for Union forces.  Missouri's Governor Jackson, famously replied, "Sir—Your requisition is illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary; in its object inhuman & diabolical. Not one man will Missouri furnish to carry on any such unholy crusade against her Southern sisters.”

In May federal forces under General Lyon took over the State Militia training camp near St. Louis.  Shortly after Missouri had gained statehood in 1821, the Legislature had enacted a law for organizing a militia.  All men over 18 and under 45 were enrolled as state soldiers to prepare for Indian wars or other emergencies.  On the first Saturday of April each year, the citizens of each township came together to be organized into companies and drilled for soldiers.  This was called Muster Day.  Then in May the companies came together and were organized into battalions, drilled and paraded for several days.  Muster Day became when debts were paid, loans made, and trading done.

As General Lyon marched his prisoners away from the State Militia training camp in St. Louis, a riot erupted during which Union soldiers fired upon civilians, killing more than two dozen of them, including women and children.  The event polarized the state.  Hundreds crowded the streets of the capital, Jefferson City, to enlist in the Missouri State Guard and protest.

Federal supporters began to organize Missouri Home Guard units in many counties, including Miller, Camden, and Laclede.  The men were mounted and armed at their own expense. They were never mustered into the U.S. Army, but were paid by the U.S. government.  The beginning of the war disrupted trade in the area and the local economy collapsed.   "Men who had been employed on the river loading and unloading cargos, men who hauled wagon loads over old salt roads to and from markets - all lolled on the streets or visited dram shops. Idle men sat on benches and whittled bass-wood."

On June 11 a peace conference in St. Louis between General Lyon and Missouri's elected governor, Claiborne Jackson, broke down.  General Lyon declared war on Missouri's elected government.  Governor Jackson traveled back to Jefferson City, burning bridges over the Osage and Gasconade Rivers to slow the federal troops.

The next day Governor Jackson issued a proclamation pleading for men to take up arms against the federal troops:

"Your first allegiance is due to your own State, and you are under no obligation whatever to obey the unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism which has introduced itself at Washington, nor submit to the infamous and degrading sway of its minions in this State.  No brave hearted Missourian will obey the one and submit to the other.  Rise, then, and drive out ignominiously the invaders who have dared to desecrate the soil which your labors have made fruitful and which is consecrated by your home."

General Lyon commandeered four steamboats and captured Jefferson City on June 15.  He left three companies of soldiers commanded by Henry Boernstein in  Jefferson City "to oversee steamer traffic on the river, keep peace and order, in the capital itself."  Boernstein made the Capitol building his headquarters, establishing a temporary bivouac for men of the companies in the great hall of the House of Representatives and the officers were quartered in the hall of the Senate.  Boernstein himself took over the chambers of the Secretary of State.  Fearing a rebellion by capital city residents, he decided to rule by fear, "bloodless terror" as he phrased it.  He quickly arrested five local citizens denounced as chief conspirators of the rebels. and requisitioned the prisoners of the large penitentiary seven blocks away and had them build high earthworks around the elevated capital.  At one point Boernstein's soldiers brought seven prisoners who were all preachers and who had been accused of disloyalty.  His men wanted to hang the seven preachers in the Capitol rotunda and began extending ropes for that purpose but Boernstein put a stop to it.  This event was a harbinger of what was to come for Methodist and Baptist preachers in Missouri during the Civil War.

Governor Jackson escaped upriver to Boonville where General Sterling Price struggled to organize Missouri State Guard forces.  Price fell ill and Jackson took command.  To buy time for the Missouri State Guard to organize elsewhere he ordered General Marmaduke to battle Lyon when approached, even though the men were outnumbered four to one.  

President Lincoln, the War Department, and local commanders in Missouri began to determine when, where, and how martial law would be applied.  Successive commanders applied increasingly harsh penalties for disloyalty.  They appointed a Unionist provisional government that enacted a requirement that voters and officeholders be made to take an oath of loyalty to this provisional government and to the federal government before being allowed to vote or hold office.  The oath effectively created an atmosphere of suspicion that encouraged neighbors to spy on and accuse each other of disloyalty, especially those with money.  As one Missourian of moderate means later sneered, “the cry of ‘disloyal’ could be very easily raised against any man who happened to have a superabundance of property.” Civilian assessments were charged against citizens in the forms of levies, taxes, and bonds.  Those who refused such levies had their property confiscated.  In one military district alone, provost marshals required 612 persons to post bond in 1862, which ranged from one thousand to ten thousand dollars each. The provost in Palmyra, Missouri, reported taking in as much as $1 million in the same year."

"Callaway and his brother Seth had plenty of good land, large herds of cattle, and were considered prosperous for that day.  Callaway was a Baptist minister while Seth was a judge and held some political offices. Both men had large families and the children of both families were as brothers and sisters to each other."  In the election of 1860 Abraham Lincoln received only seven votes in Pulaski County.  When the election came to a vote on whether or not the state was to secede from the Union, Callaway and Seth voted to stay in the Union.  These sentiments were mirrored by the majority of citizens in Pulaski County. "Though their sympathies were with the South, they still felt that the Union should be preserved at any cost. They could not forget that their grandfathers had fought for the Stars and Stripes in the Revolution and therefore were opposed to secession.

By the end of June, General Price had established a camp on Cowskin Prairie in the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri, assembling some 1700 men.  

"These people were not all rebels nor disunionists, but believed that they were serving the lawfully constituted authorities of the State, in repelling invasion and in protecting their homes."  (p. 83 Wilson's Creek Piston and Hatcher)

Three sons of Seth Manes joined the Missouri State Guard:  Thomas Callaway, Francis Marion, and Jacob Newton.  

Less than a month after joining up, Seth and Becky's oldest son, Thomas Callaway Manes, contracted measles, died, and was buried in an unrecorded grave near Joplin, Missouri.  His widow, Nancy York Manes, and her two young daughters came to live with Seth and Becky.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Missouri on August 10, 1861, was the bloodiest battle in the West, with about 2,500 casualties. Two of Seth's sons were with the Missouri State Guard at Wilson's Creek.  Jacob Newton Manes was born August 11, 1843; he celebrated his 18th birthday at Wilson's Creek.  After the battle, Francis Marion Manes was in a Missouri State Guard hospital in Springfield with remittent fever.

When word reached Pulaski County, "Callaway and Seth set off for Springfield. While the Manes brothers were in Springfield, the Union Army, commanded by General Franz Siegel, retreated from Springfield to Rolla, which was the end of the rail line at that time. The Union Army retreated right by the newly constructed Callaway Manes' home, (in what is Richland, Missouri, today) and camped overnight on what was afterwards called the "Old Union Road." That night the soldiers burned all the rails in the fence on one side of the farm for firewood. A flock of sheep and all of the hogs and chickens were butchered for the army. General Siegel paid for the animals with script, but the Manes family was never able to collect any money for their stock."  The beaten Federal army encumbered by a train of Government wagons and refugees was estimated at seven miles long.

Francis Marion Manes was furloughed on September 12, 1861.  Returning home brought little peace. A month later a skirmish was fought in nearby Camden County between Union forces and the Missouri State Guard. The Union soldiers prevailed in the Battle of Monday's Hollow (or Wet Glaize).  An undetermined number of Missouri State Guard soldiers from Camden, Miller, and surrounding counties were killed.  Many more were taken prisoner.

The commanders of the Missouri State Guard merged with Confederate troops in Arkansas. The men were forced to choose between leaving Missouri to join the Confederate Army or returning to their homes.  Jacob Newton Manes was furloughed from the Missouri State Guard at 19.

By 1862 the Union forces needed more troops. On July 22 General Schofield issued General Order 19 requiring every able-bodied man in Missouri to report to the nearest military post to become a member of the Enrolled Missouri Militia (EMM). "Over 18 and under 46 had to enroll in six days from the date of the order."  

These men were on-call as needed in their local counties.  The purpose of the EMM was to provide protection in local counties. "These units were untrained and lacked even the lax discipline of the Missouri State Militia, a full-time federal force.  A distressing number of men took advantage of their newfound military authority to harass, or even rob or kill, neighbors against whom they bore grudges or whom they suspected or knew to be Southern sympathizers."

The Lt. Colonel of the local 47th Regiment EMM organized in Camden County was Thomas O'Halloran, an Irish immigrant who worked as a meat cutter in St. Louis, then came to Camden County to work for Joseph McClurg. The Manes folk "always hated old man O'Halloran with a hatred that was akin to poison, and he was always afraid of the Manes men."

General Order 24, issued in August, required all disloyal men and those who had sympathized with the rebellion to report to the nearest military post or enrolling station, be enrolled, surrender their arms and return to their homes where they would be permitted to remain as long as they attended to their ordinary business and in no way gave aid or comfort to the enemy.

Disarmed citizens quickly reported concerns.  Residents of Camden County met to form the Wet Glaize Union Patrol Guards because "stealing, robbing, and other crimes and misdemeanors are enacted in our midst with impunity."  A detailed set of rules and regulations for the new organization was sent to General Brown.  The letter requested that General Brown "order the Colonel at Linn Creek to give us our shotguns and rifles again."

Seth's son, Francis Marion Manes, paid $300 in Commutation Tax in 1862, exempting him from service in the 47th EMM. "Each person liable to perform military service shall be exempt from service during each year on the annual payment of a commutation tax equal to ten (soon modified to thirty) dollars each, and one percent of the assessed value of his property."  He was listed as "rebel" on the Muster Roll.  The following year he was listed exempt as a teamster employed by the government.

Multiple encounters heightened the tension between the Manes family and the area's Union forces.  One encounter was retold by Seth's great-nephew:   "During the Civil War Grandfather Callaway and Great Uncle Seth and Uncle Ben Clark went to Linn Creek at about wheat harvest time. On the way they passed near to the place of Major Thomas O'Halloran, where the Chitwood gang hung out. They were intercepted by some of the soldiers, bushwhackers, or militia, or whatever they were, and ordered to get out of the wagon and cut O'Halloran's wheat."

"Grandfather said, 'Gentlemen, I am as ready to die as I ever expect to be. I propose that, when I do die, it shall be as a free man and not as a slave. I will cut no wheat and I will resist to the limit of my power any effort to force me to do anything against my will.' At this, he and Uncle Seth seized their guns which were in the wagon and, standing back to back in the wagon, Uncle Seth said, 'Now men, we don't want to die, but we will not cut your wheat while we are alive and we can't cut it when we are dead, so you can make nothing by killing us. You can kill us, but we will get some of you while you are at it, so do your worst.' "

"Uncle Ben got out of the wagon,  got down on his knees and begged the Manes brothers to go with him to the wheat field, but they refused and continued to defy the crowd against them until they finally agreed that they might go. They refused to go without Clark and ordered him to get in the wagon. He drove off, while Grandfather and Uncle Seth faced the rear with their weapons in their hands."

Baptist and Methodist preachers were systematically being warned out of the pulpit at this time. The majority of Missouri churches were either Methodist Episcopal South or Southern Baptist.  Seth's brother, Callaway Manes, was ordered to stop preaching. After preaching next to his last sermon in Waynesville, a bunch of switches was laid at the door with a note saying that if he preached there again, they would kill him.  The bundle of switches, an omen of a slicking, was a last dire warning used during this era. If the warning went unheeded,  the subject was drug out in the middle of the night and beaten with the switches until the entire bundle was exhausted.  The first slicking took place in Camden County in 1832.  The popularity of slickings spread from punishments administered to cheaters to become a method of intimidation.  

The next week the men of Pulaski County organized.  According to Seth's half-brother, Samuel Jasper Manes, who was 24 and serving in the Union Army, the men were responding to the actions of the Union forces in the area.  "Finally, the people, to escape the raids and persecutions of the Chitwoods and their associates, called a meeting at Waynesville on Sunday, July 31, 1864, to organize a company of the 48th Missouri Volunteer Infantry.  Callaway was elected First Lieutenant over some friend of the Chitwoods. This was the last straw."

Two descriptions of the murder of Seth's brother, Callaway, follow:  On August 7th "some men rode up in the lane about forty yards from the house, stopped there, and five men came through the gate on to the house. One man knocked at the East door of the house. Pa was already in bed. He had taken some cattle to market at Waynesville, then filled his appointment to preach there. When he got home he took the gold he got from the cattle and buried it in a stone jar. When he heard the men, Pa got up and opened the door. Pa said, 'Come in, gentlemen.' One man asked, "Is this Callaway Manes?" When Pa said, 'I am,' the man pulled his pistol and shot him in the chest. Pa fell back against the stairs and Polly screamed. Pa whispered, 'Hush, hush, hush.' The same party that did the shooting called for a light and Polly got the candle. He made her hold a light so he could shoot Pa through the ear."

"So, on the night of the following day, an unknown number of Chitwood’s Company G – some say 12, and some say 20 or more – rode to the Manes home and aroused him from his bed. As he approached the door he said, “Come in, gentlemen. To which the reply was a question, “Are you Callaway Manes?” He answered, “I am.” A shot followed. Stepping back to the bed, the stricken man let himself gently to the floor. Hush Hush Hush A light was made and one of his daughters was compelled to hold it over her father while the assassin shot him again through the head, although he was already dead. "

The family members interred Callaway Hodges Manes in the Mays-Gillespie Cemetery.

Military service cards substantiate that many men enlisted in Company A of the 48th Regiment on July 31, 1864, at Waynesville, and were mustered into service on August 3. The men named in service records as officers for Company A were noted as enlisted at Rolla a week after the murder.   The service card for Captain William Wilson was altered.  The First Lieutenant was Daniel E. Davis, a neighbor of Callaway's, and the grandson of William Gillespie, whom Callaway had worked with when he first came to Pulaski County.

Two weeks after the murder, on August 21, Becky Manes died from dysentery and was interred in Mays-Gillespie Cemetery.

A second company of the 48th enlisted at Waynesville on August 27, including Seth's son, Francis Marion Manes. On September 5 he was promoted to Corporal at Rolla.  On September 16, Jacob Newton Manes age 21 enlisted in the 48th Regiment Company C at Rolla, along with his brother-in-law George Vaught.

On October 24 Seth Manes married his daughter-in-law Nancy York.  The marriage was performed by W. S. York, Justice of the Peace, in Phelps County.  Francis Marion Manes arranged for military permission so that Seth and Nancy could take the younger children to Illinois.  They left in November.

In 1865, the 48th Regiment was disbanded and discharged on June 30.  In September Alice Jane Manes was born to Seth and Nancy in Illinois.

By 1867 they had returned to Pulaski County where six more children were born: 1867 James F., 1869 Benjamin Albert, 1871 Harriet J., 1873 George Washington, 1875 Samuel J., 1879 Jessie Gillespie

Seth McCully Manes (II) died on June 15, 1896, and was interred with his first wife Rebecca and his brother Callaway at Mays-Gillespie Cemetery.

Nancy York Manes died on June 21, 1923, and was interred at Manes Cemetery.

Nancy York Manes holding her grandson Drew

Marked for Murder: Union forces and Missouri preachers

Baptist and Methodist preachers were systematically warned out of the pulpit by Union forces during the Civil War.  Those who refused to heed the warning were murdered.  The majority of Missouri churches were either Methodist Episcopal South or Southern Baptist, both organized in 1845.  On December 24, 1862, General Order 35 authorized provost marshals and commanders to arrest "notoriously bad and dangerous men," even without proof of wrongdoing, and to require them to post a bond for good behavior or to imprison or banish them.  Federal military authorities in Missouri arrested, fined, imprisoned, or banished over sixty clergymen on general charges of disloyalty to the United States.  

The state legislature required ministers to take loyalty oaths to be able to conduct lawful marriages. A  St. Louis minister who baptized a baby named Sterling Price Robbins found himself embroiled in a conflict that eventually reached all the way to President Lincoln.  After months of conflict the minister chose the path of many other Missourians - he left the state.

In 2012 the Methodist Church worked to place markers at unmarked graves of Missouri preachers killed during the Civil War.  "Reverend Green Woods was the Presiding Elder for the Salem area and had been warned not to preach because he belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In spite of the warning, he preached at a rural Methodist church in Dent County. The next day soldiers came to his farm where he was out in a field planting corn. The soldiers took him away. His body was found that evening with his tongue cut out and his hand cut off."(Salem, Missouri News Online May 15, 2012)  

In a report to Headquarters from the 13th Cavalry MSM stationed at nearby Rolla, Major Tompkins wrote, "I arrested a minister and congregation at the place where the Reverend Wood, who was shot by Kansas Fifth, was to have preached, and preached first to the minister and then to the congregation. A more attentive audience never listened to man. I told them that they had to prove by acts that they loved our Government and we would protect them and their property. I drew more tears than the minister. Left my men (eighty) at Crows Station to bring in all who have made threats about Reverend Woods death."

In 1870, William Leftwich published two volumes titled Martyrdom in Missouri detailing Union actions against Methodist preachers.  Both volumes are available free online at Google Books.

Actions against Baptist preachers by Union forces brought similar results.  Many left their churches and exited the state.  A detailed account of the murder of popular pioneer preacher Callaway Manes is available online at http://southcentralmolhistory.blogspot.com/2015/05/who-shot-callaway-manes-august-7-1864.html
Callaway Hodges Manes was killed at his home in Pulaski County, Missouri, on Sunday evening, August 7, 1864, at the age of fifty-five. One account relates this story: "When he heard the men, Pa got up and opened the door. Pa said, 'Come in, gentlemen.' One man asked, 'Is this Callaway Manes?' When Pa said, 'I am,' the man pulled his pistol and shot him in the chest. Pa fell back against the stairs and Polly screamed. Pa whispered, 'Hush, hush, hush.' The same party that did the shooting called for a light and Polly got the candle. He made her hold a light so he could shoot Pa through the ear."
The targeting of preachers by Union forces was not specific to Missouri.  As detailed in the online account of the Manes murder, the following day his relative was shot by a Union sniper while holding services in North Carolina.